Ronald Sutcliffe Greenwood was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, on the 7th March 1904, the son of Ellis Wilson and Henrietta Greenwood (née Spencer). His father was a mechanic, and the family home was at 4. Warwick Street, Halifax.
On the 27th January 1906, his father boarded the Carmania in Liverpool, and disembarked in New York City on the 5th February. From there, he travelled to Boston, Massachusetts, where he found work as a machinist in a machine shop. As soon as he had established himself in Boston, he sent for his wife and child to join him, and for a period the family resided at East 5th Street, Boston, before relocating to 92. Emerson Street.
On the 21st September 1914, his mother died, which deeply affected Roland, and he was described as feeling lonely and melancholy. His maternal grandmother wrote to his father from England, offering to look after Ronald, and when Ronald saw the letter, he begged his father to allow him to travel to England.
Thus, in April 1915, his father relented, and agreed to send Ronald to his maternal grandparents. He arranged for his brother-in-law, Mr. Spencer, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, to purchase a second cabin ticket for Roland on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York to Liverpool, and it was arranged that a second cabin steward would care for him during the voyage, and that he would be met by relatives when the liner docked in Liverpool.
His destination was the home of his uncle, Mr. Walter Spencer, 53. Upper Lane, Northowram, Halifax. He also had an aunt, Mrs. Sutcliffe, residing at Southowram, Halifax, and some sources indicate that this was his destination.
Either way, he boarded the liner in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, in good time for her scheduled 10 o’clock departure. His father accompanied him as far as the gang plank, and watched Roland as he ascended to the second cabin area, at which point Roland turned and waved back to his father, saying – “Goodbye, Dad”!
No doubt, the young boy identified himself to the crew and was introduced to the steward who was to care for him during the voyage, and he would then have had to have waited until just after mid-day before the vessel left the Cunard berth at Pier 54 and slipped into the North River to begin what became her last ever sailing. The delay was because she had to take on board cargo, passengers and crew from the liner
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had taken up from trade for service as a troop ship at the end of April.
Six days out of New York on the afternoon of 7th May, and within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, the
Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that time, she was only about 250 miles away from her destination. Ronald Greenwood was killed as a result of this action. He was aged eleven years.
As his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, West Yorkshire England Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813 – 1910, Massachusetts Death Records 1841 – 1915, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, New York Passenger Lists 1820 – 1957, Cunard Records, Boston Daily Globe, Boston Post, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/139, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.